The first tea plants (Camellia Sinensis) were brought to the United States from China in the 1700s. In 1888, the first successful tea plantation in the United States was founded in Summerville, SC; a short distance from Charleston. The tea plants would later be transplanted to a new site on Wadmalaw Island on what would later be known as the Charleston Tea Plantation. Today, the tea plants are grown on 127 acres on one of the few working tea plantations in the United States.